The mechanism of the Heavenly Thunder tribulation was rather straightforward—just a loud "Bang—!" A bolt of lightning would strike down hard! As long as it didn't kill you, it would keep striking like that. The damage from the Heavenly Thunder exponentially increased with each strike, reset only if it killed you. Thus, no matter how many Life Prolonging Pills a cultivator refined, they were useless if one truly couldn't withstand the tribulation. Instead, one would dissolve and have to cultivate from scratch, resetting the accumulated damage.